Sanction against Russia for West-choreographed conflict in Ukraine

[Nemo1024]

Lavrov voiced today the true aim of the Western sanctions: to displace the Russian government.
It is openly declared by the US/EU leaders that "sanctions must be formed so that they destroy Russian economy and create public uprisings".
As we all know, Ukraine is just an excuse and cannon fodder in getting at Russia.

[Nemo1024]

http://stanislavs.org/the-french-mistral-slapstick-comedy-sovereignty-lost/

The French “Mistral” Slapstick Comedy – Sovereignty Lost

As I wrote earlier, Russia is best served if France does not deliver. Today France said that they will not deliver. Good. Russia can stand to gain between 1.5 to 20 billion Euro in damages.
http://www.vz.ru/news/2014/11/25/716998.html
http://lenta.ru/news/2014/11/25/mistral1/

Meanwhile in Germany we see a similar situation. Merkel screams about the need to impose new sanctions
http://lenta.ru/news/2014/11/25/sanctions/
While the 6000+ German companies that had exports or cooperation with Russia are reporting economic losses, potential loss of workplaces, worsening unemployment in the country and loss of Russian market to the German companies in the post-sanctions world as Russia now finds replacement partners.

Looks like Hollande and Merkel are driving their countries to ruin, sitting on the American leash.

[Nemo1024]

European Europhobic leaders continue to shoot Europe in the foot to please their American masters.

Now it concerns the South Stream. The window of opportunity for Europe is closing.

Russian energy minister Uljukaev made an interesting statement today, saying that Russia will not be inconvenienced of EU decides not to build South Stream. It was primarily conceived to ensure Europe (Southern Europe, actually, as Northern Europe already has North Stream) against transit insecurity (meaning Ukraine). He said that if Europe decides that they don't need such security, it's their decision, but should any transit problems arise in the third-party countries, it will also be solely EU's responsibility.

What he didn't mention is thousands of work places that will be lost in EU in construction and, later, maintenance of the pipeline, as well as lost transt revenue for the countries that will host South Stream.

Needless to say that Hungary, Serbia and Austria are all for building the pipeline, but it seems that the Northern states don't like the additional freedom that might give those states.

Interestingly, governments of Hungary, Czechia, Serbia have held an independent policy, putting their countries' interests first. As the result they seem to be prepped for colour revolution now. Two Czech ministers received packages with strong poison, while Czech media received threats.

PS: This is good. French minister of defence crept to Poland to report to the Polish minister of defence about the decision not to deliver Mistrals. Napoleon is turning in his grave. 

[Souldream]

http://stanislavs.org/the-french-mistral-slapstick-comedy-sovereignty-lost/

The French “Mistral” Slapstick Comedy – Sovereignty Lost

As I wrote earlier, Russia is best served if France does not deliver. Today France said that they will not deliver. Good. Russia can stand to gain between 1.5 to 20 billion Euro in damages.
http://www.vz.ru/news/2014/11/25/716998.html
http://lenta.ru/news/2014/11/25/mistral1/

Meanwhile in Germany we see a similar situation. Merkel screams about the need to impose new sanctions
http://lenta.ru/news/2014/11/25/sanctions/
While the 6000+ German companies that had exports or cooperation with Russia are reporting economic losses, potential loss of workplaces, worsening unemployment in the country and loss of Russian market to the German companies in the post-sanctions world as Russia now finds replacement partners.

Looks like Hollande and Merkel are driving their countries to ruin, sitting on the American leash.

Bullshit ... you forget to explain that for some extroardinary option ... like WAR or any escalation ... they can cancel the contract .... 2 cents propaganda ... as ever ! Funny ...
Cool Russian can buy poor products in china & India ... and eat poisonned product ......
Russian want to close all ... ok let's go ... and it will do only one thing ... push European to stop to buy Gaz & Petrol from Russia ... and Russia will go back to eat potatoes and welcome back to ticket / Communist era !

Hoo but not for Poutine & friends ... only the 60% of poor russian living , addicted to vodka .... enjoy !

So ... true, in Russia only around 500.000 people are dying every year for alchool dissease ... and of course they are number one for suicides ...

So suicides, alchool, syntetic drugs ... what a nice country with social aid ... so nice !

[Nemo1024]

And the South Stream window of opportunity has closed for Europe.

Russia announced today that the project is closed and will not be re-opened.

A new pipeline will instead be built to Turkey, and from there, possibly, to Greece. Interestingly, payments between Turkey and Russia will be done in national currencies, bypassing petrodollar. 

[Nemo1024]

Observing the Western reaction to Russia pulling the plug on the South Stream is amusing.

The only ones celebrating are the USA, who called Russian move a step in the right direction of depoliticising gas supplies (read: USA will continue to be able to hold the EU by the balls for a little longer)

Southern EU countries range from saddened to bewildered. They didn't expect Russia to display so much self-assuredness after all the pushing from Brussels. In Bulgaria the blame game has started and the government is taking the hit. EU said that Bulgaria will not be compensated by the EU for the loss of revenue (estimated to have been about $400 million).

In total EU loses about €2 billion by not building South Stream, and throws itself at the mercy of Ukraine, which, as we know, is governed from Washington.

Italian gas energy company stocks are down, Serbs are furious that that were cheated out of prosperity by EU: whole settlements started to be built on the promise of South Stream incomes. So Serbia is now even more likely to choose not to join EU.

Austria is saddened by the losses incurred.

All in the name of "Energy Security" of EU, as touted from Brussels.

The winners are: Turkey, which will have a new pipeline of the same dimension as South Stream, and Greece, which can become another entry way for Russian gas, once it becomes painfully apparent that Europe needs it.

And as for Russia: it just shrugs its shoulders.

[Nemo1024]

Obama made a nice speech today, saying that he is satisfied with sanctions against Europe... sorry, Russia. He did say that sanctions are hitting Europe, though. He also said that USA will continue hitting Russia with sanctions until it "changes its course". The excuse of Ukraine was not mention at all.

[Nemo1024]

Watched the interview with Miller today. South Stream is definitely dead. No amount of EU commission convening will revive it.
Miller said that it was the absence of permission from Bulgaria to build on its soil and in its territorial waters that was the final straw. The previous 5 months of EUs saying NO didn't help either.

Once the pipeline to the Greek border is done, EU can decide if they want to buy Russian gas through Turkey.

Oh, and Miller said that Ukraine becomes completely irrelevant as a transit hub with the current plan. Russia will of course sell gas to Ukrain, but it will not have the headache of possible failing transit deliveries.


The comedy club continues:
Polish deputy suggests giving Mistrals to Ukraine. 
http://www.forbes.ru/news/275109-polskii-deputat-predlozhil-frantsii-peredat-mistrali-ukraine
I take it, it'll be a nice free present. I wonder if this Polish deputy will be paying from his pocket

[Nemo1024]

And again Washington blathers about conditions for lifting sanctions against Russia (please don't - Russia needs those sanctions to grow in strength!). One of the conditions is pulling of Russian military from East Ukraine, which is impossible to do since there is no Russia military there in the first place. So the rest of Obama's speech is moot. He basically said that sanctions won't be lifted.

http://www.gazeta.ru/business/news/2014/12/08/n_6723689.shtml

Oh, and what about old British APC that Kiev is expected to get delivered. Shouldn't Washington impose sanctions against Britain for that hostile move?

[Rassah]

So, Russia seems to be collapsing: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-08/russia-pain-spreads-to-stock-and-bond-markets-as-ruble-plunges.html

Russia’s worsening economic crisis is spreading through its corporate bond and stock markets as a tumbling ruble and plunging growth erode confidence in companies recently seen as able to withstand the turmoil.

UBS AG cut stock ratings for seven retail and Internet companies yesterday including Lenta Ltd. and Yandex NV. Petropavlovsk Plc, Russia’s third-biggest gold producer, agreed with most of its investors to a rescue package that includes selling $335 million of shares and bonds to cut debt. More than 50 of the country’s corporate bonds now yield at least 10 percentage points more than Treasuries, levels considered distressed.

“The vector of the Russian economy is just down,” Ian Hague, founding partner at New York-based Firebird Management LLC, which oversees about $1.1 billion including Russian stocks, said by phone yesterday. “We see lower levels of disposable income, higher inflation and higher borrowing costs. The ultimate effect of this economic downturn is spreading to all the sectors of the economy, including retail stocks and the Internet companies.”

Russia’s benchmark Micex index has plunged 7.8 percent in the past three days, while yields on corporate dollar debt surged an average 1.65 percentage points last week to 9.66 percent, the highest since 2009, JPMorgan Chase & Co. indexes show.

The ruble has tumbled 25 percent over the past two months, extending this year’s slide to 39 percent, the worst performance among 24 emerging-market currencies tracked by Bloomberg.

Looming Recession

Russia’s economy is succumbing to international sanctions linked to the Ukraine conflict as the plummeting ruble drives inflation to the highest levels since 2011 and plunging oil prices erode export revenue. The country may enter its first recession since 2009 in the first quarter, Deputy Economy Minister Alexei Vedev said last week.

A metric in Russia’s bond market also is revealing growing concern that President Vladimir Putin will impose capital controls to stem the ruble’s rout. Investors are demanding a widening premium to own ruble-denominated bonds traded in Moscow rather than ruble debt that trades in London and international markets. The yield gap between the two securities has swelled to 0.66 percentage point, the widest since January 2013 and more than six times the average over the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Inflation Outlook

The Bank of Russia is running out of options to stabilize the ruble after at least $2.6 billion of interventions last week failed to stop the rout. Borrowing costs jumped to a five-year high as the tumbling currency sparked speculation policy makers will raise interest rates as early as this week to stem the decline.

And OPEC is helping along, by deciding on Nov. 27 to maintain oil output levels, worsening the outlook in the already bear market in oil. Add to this more idiocy coming out of Russia itself, such as more planned currency controls, plans to ban and heavily fine anything Bitcoin related, and the ridiculously stupid law forcing all online services to store information on Russians only on servers located in Russia by January 1st, which practically none of the international online businesses can comply with, and that place is pretty much going to hell.


By the way, regarding that last part, since bitcointalk.org servers are NOT stored in Russia, does this mean that all you Russians will have to be banned and blocked from this forum to avoid any legal trouble for the forum owners?

[Nemo1024]

And so it happens. Today Obama questioned the necessity of further sanctions against Russia and nixed US implementing new rounds without EU.

[Rassah]

Damage is done I guess.

[Nemo1024]

Two interesting events happened rather unnoticed yesterday, almost as footnotes:

1. US' Ministry of Financed made a somewhat boastful, if damning statement that the two-front attack on Russia is successful. The first front being economical with sanctions and an artificially depressed oil price; the second front is political with destabilisation of Ukraine and creation of a hot spot on Russian border.

2. EU has lifted sanctions and released frozen funds of Yanukovich and his sons, as well as a dozen of Ukrainian officials from before the February coup d'etat happened. The reason given: sanctions were illegal and EU feared that they'd be overturned in court, as it happened with Iranian and Syrian officials.

It is worth noting, that sanctions against Ukrainian officials were never the main goal - they were a springboard to implement sanctions against Russia, which are, by the way, illegal as well under WTO agreements.

[Nemo1024]

Psaki is still psakiing. She called upon the world to stop all trade relations with Russia. Fat chance. USA sounds more desperate than ever.
http://top.rbc.ru/politics/13/12/2014/548b9a1a2ae596497e3c9db9

Pushkov replied that this utterment sounds completely absurd.

[Valta Crypto]

I think EU shouldn't put sanctions against Russia,
it's hurting too much European companies and shutting out a huge market with
great potential. This whole us versus them thing is so dumb. We should keep
trading each other so everyone can get richer and peace maintained.

About geopolitics I think NATO has been expanding too rapidly and too far east,
and nobody listened Russians (they had many trade deals with Ukraine) when
Ukraine tried to join EU in 2013. And Putin should stop using tanks in Ukraine
as tools of domestic politics if you understand what I mean.

I don't know if the oil price is manipulation or not but US doesn't have
any right to choose who or which kind of government or leader Russia has.
Putin doesn't have right to bully it's neighbors by sending troops or
shutting off gas supply if they do something he doesn't like.

US should recognize Russia as dominant regional power of Eastern Europe
and Russia should stop it's military operations in Ukraine.

[blablahblah]

I think EU shouldn't put sanctions against Russia,
it's hurting too much European companies and shutting out a huge market with
great potential. This whole us versus them thing is so dumb. We should keep
trading each other so everyone can get richer and peace maintained.

Wait, which sanctions are you talking about?
As far as I am aware, it's Russian sanctions against the EU. The Russian policy is to prevent EU exporters from selling their meat and fruit products to Russia. Is the Russian media saying something different?

I remember that Russia imposed sanctions against EU pork products back in 2013, making up some story about some rare disease: African swine flu or something similar. That was planned aggression by Russia, even before any of that Maidan stuff happened.

[samaricanin]

I remember that Russia imposed sanctions against EU pork products back in 2013, making up some story about some rare disease: African swine flu or something similar.

You want to eat infected meat, go ahead your decision

[blablahblah]

I remember that Russia imposed sanctions against EU pork products back in 2013, making up some story about some rare disease: African swine flu or something similar.

You want to eat infected meat, go ahead your decision

 

You Russians are so brainwashed. You are trained to be ultra-sceptical of the "evil West", yet you swallow your own country's lies like naive babies.

[BitMos]

I remember that Russia imposed sanctions against EU pork products back in 2013, making up some story about some rare disease: African swine flu or something similar.

You want to eat infected meat, go ahead your decision

 

You Russians are so brainwashed. You are trained to be ultra-sceptical of the "evil West", yet you swallow your own country's lies like naive babies.

because they are served with vodka? and anyway, every Russians know that once the wall of the smog of war is on the horizon all lies will fold, until then let them believe in their power, they let us drink ... but be aware, if the flow of vodka is stopped, better mypmf who ever you may be, where ever you may come from...

[blablahblah]

Sweden: Russian RUST Bucket Nearly Collides With Passenger Plane

Oops! Wasn't Sweden until recently sympathetic to the Russian-choreographed aggression?

Didn't the pilot's mum ever tell him not to drink the wiper fluid?